Pacific Rim: Cherno Alpha
by Cryokina
Summary: When Kaiju run rampant on Russian soil, only Alexsis and Sasha Kaidanovsky stand in their way. When they pilot Cherno Alpha, no monster can hope to defeat them.


The loudspeakers in the Vladivostok Shatterdome blared, the dreaded news echoing through spartan grey corridors. Technicians dropped whatever they were doing and scurried to their appointed positions. It took mere moments for the aging speakers in the mess hall to take up the message.

"Category 4 Kaiju detected. Designation: Charybdis."

Sasha growled like an animal, standing up from the table. She had neatly combed blonde hair, bordering on white. "Another, only three weeks later. In the middle of lunch. Inconvenient." Aleksis rose to stand beside her, an enormous bear of a man with a shock of black hair on his chin. His bowl of mushroom soup forgotten, he followed as she strode out of the mess hall.

A technician ran up to them with a tablet and gave them a salute. "Lieutenants!" he cried. Sasha didn't even slow down, leaving Aleksis to take the tablet and dismiss the man with a nod. "You really should pay other people some heed," he said. She didn't reply. It wasn't the first time he'd said such a thing, and they both knew it wouldn't be the last.

The pair strode across the hangar in lockstep, watching as their Jaeger, Cherno Alpha, was maneouvered into place. It stood a full two hundred and eighty feet tall, containing the sheer energy and destruction of an atomic bomb focused into an enormous metal form. With the conical head-stack silhouetted against the lights of the hangar, it was beautiful.

They entered their conn-pod together, their footsteps synchronised. They slid their feet into the boots of the drive-suit, firmly connected to the Jaeger's systems. It took less than five minutes for the crew to equip their drivesuits; first the chest and shoulders, then the legs. The metallic spines snapped into place down their backs. Dozens of tiny cables were fed into their shoulder plates. Finally, their helmets were locked into place. The visor slid down, augmenting the inside of the pod with a variety of holographic screen and readouts. A pattern of winking lights ignited on the faceplate.

The core was engaged, a massive reactor based on designs from nuclear submarines. The charges on the Tesla cells were checked and double-checked. Fuel reserves were topped up, and the synapse system was checked for leaks. Every possible precaution was taken to prevent another disaster. Another Russian Jaeger, Eden Assassin, had fallen in 2021 due to a catastrophic fuel containment failure. Such an event could not be allowed to recur.

Green lights flickered across the controls. Cherno Alpha was ready. The pilots felt the floor beneath them shudder as the Jaeger was moved, wheeled platforms bringing it outside the Shatterdome, where specially modified helicopters would fly it to the site of the Kaiju attack.

"Engaging neural handshake."

Their minds connected in a bluish blur of memory and emotion. As husband and wife, they had spent much time together. Seeing the same situation from two vantage points simultaneously was often frightening to inexperienced Rangers, but not to the crew of Cherno Alpha. They had seen off a dozen Kaiju assaults, with six recorded kills. Nothing could startle them.

 _meeting in the academy / dinner together / first Kaiju kill / marriage / battling Dreich_

Joyful as the memories were, focusing in on any one of them would cause the neural bridge to destabilise and eventually collapse. Happiness had the same emotional strength as fear. Wordless, Sasha and Aleksis floated, Drifting, snatches of memories like scraps of paper flying past.

"Left hemisphere calibrated. Right hemisphere calibrated."

Aleksis and Sasha looked up together, seeing through the eyes of their Jaeger, feeling its enormous steel limbs as their own. They gave a thin, grim smile.

"Cherno Alpha, ready for deployment," Sasha said.

"Loccent, where is the target?"

There was a pause from the other end of the radio. "Approaching Kharbarovsk. We should reach it soon after it hits the city. About ten minutes to drop. Cold weather, so no need to worry about overheating."

"Good. Drop us as close as you can to the bastard."

"As you can see, the Kaiju is nearing Kharbarovsk. It's being called Charybdis. Pretty large - a Category 4. It's already walked through a couple of small settlements, and we can hardly begin to estimate the property damage - Hold on, there's something - We're being asked to leave the area, as there is a Jaeger inbound. I'm getting word Cherno Alpha is being deployed. Stay tuned, this is going to be one hell of a show!"

Charybdis loomed over the houses of Kharbarovsk. The sirens had sounded some time ago. Most of the population were already hidden away in bunkers or had simply left town. Enraged by the lack of prey, it slammed through buildings, toppling structures in showers of grey dust mixed with the still-falling snow. It exhaled, foul breath clouding in the air.

There was a sound from behind it, the battlecry of some strange war-god. It turned in time to see a formidable foe plummet to the ground, a monster of metal with a conical head.

At last. A being that could challenge it. Charybdis roared and thrashed at the ground.

Cherno Alpha straightened up, motors in its limbs shifting into position for combat. Sasha and Aleksis took their first good look at their opponent. It was a Category 4, and that meant it was dangerous. It stood almost as tall as their Jaeger, but was considerably wider. It was reptilian, like a bipedal iguana with dark bluish-green skin covered in glowing lines. Kaiju usually had six limbs, but this one only seemed to have four. Its head was thin and pointed, with two clusters of glowing eyes on either side. It roared, exposing a mass of iridescent tongues whipping around like tentacles. Cherno did not bother to taunt its opponent and charged, every step leaving a crater in the ground.

The Russian Jaeger swung its blocky fist, the entire weight of the charge directed into a single punch. It caught the Kaiju in the side of the head, making it squeal and stagger backwards. Cherno followed it up with a blow to the gut, knocking Charybdis back into an apartment block. It fell down onto the monster's head in a rain of bricks and cement.

The Kaiju rose to its feet again slowly, dazed by the beating it was receiving from Cherno. Aleksis laughed. "This one isn't so-"

Suddenly, it pounced onto them, moving faster than should have been possible. The Jaeger fell backwards onto an overpass, hitting the ground in a cascade of broken concrete and wailing car alarms. Charybdis roared into the cameras on their headstack, clamping its jaws on them. The rangers' view was obscured by the slithering mass of tongues, an insane caustic squid, acidic saliva eating away slowly but steadily at their hull.

True to their training, the Kaidanovskies did not panic. Aleksis reached down to press a button on the console with his free hand. "Activating incinerator turbines," he said. The cylinders on Cherno's shoulders began to whir, spinning faster and faster. Unnoticed by the Kaiju, a hellish red glow grew until they erupted in gouts of flame with a loud _whoomph_. A spew of igniferous chemicals powerful enough to melt through steel ate into Charybdis' flesh. It reared back, giving Cherno enough room to stand up. It delivered another punch, keeping the Kaiju unbalanced and confused.

"Deploying sluggernaut!" Sasha cried. A dense cylinder of metal slid out of Cherno's right arm and slotted into place between the Jaeger's fingers. With its right fist now a completely solid mass of metal, it grabbed hold of Charybdis' head by a horn and slammed the sluggernaut into its face. Once, twice, the blows impacted like an oncoming train. The Kaiju scratched at Cherno's headstack, unable to find a vulnerable area. It ducked under the third punch and clawed at the Jaeger's left shoulder, its talons catching in the incinerator turbine.

There was an incredible explosion, throwing both Jaeger and Kaiju back. The titans stumbled away, disorientated. Cherno crashed into a parking lot and used the structure to hold itself upright. Sasha groaned. "One turbine destroyed, and the other might explode if we try to use it. We need to finish this one off." Aleksis nodded.

They regained their composure as the Kaiju clambered to its feet. One of its claws was blackened and burned, a mirror of the darkening sky above them. The snow started to fall faster, eddying away in air currents behind their Jaeger's limbs when it moved. Charybdis opened its burnt mouth to roar, but then did something unexpected. It flexed its arms and spread some sort of iridescent wings, like an alien peacock's tail erupting from its back. The patterns swirled mesmerisingly in blue and green.

Sasha and Aleksis blinked together, hypnotised. Snow swirled in front of the pattern in just the wrong way, breaking the illusion, and suddenly the monster was in front of them. They blocked its first swipe with their arm, but the second hit one of their main camera-banks, and the third came dangerously close to piercing their conn-pod. Struggling to stay upright, Aleksis hit another key on the console. Twenty-foot spikes erupted from the soles of Cherno Alpha's feet and slid into the frozen earth, pinning it to the spot. Now unable to knock over its foe, Charybdis was visibly panicking. Cherno grabbed the creature by the neck with one hand, wrapped the other fist around its tail, and lifted the Kaiju into the air. The Kaidanovskies felt the pressure on their Jaeger as motors strained to lift the enormous mass. They brought the squirming monster over their headstack and threw it.

Charybdis landed in a frozen lake, shattering the ice instantly. The near-zero water seeped into its wounds, causing what must have been excruciating pain. It tried to open its hypnotic wing again, but Cherno ripped a fifty-foot slab of concrete from a nearby building and hurled it after the Kaiju. It hit the monster in the head, distratcing it for a few moments. That was all the opening Cherno needed to sprint up to it, deliver another punch to its gut, and grab hold of the wings. Charybdis let out a scream that shattered windows as the Jaeger ripped the membranes from its back in a shower of blue blood.

"You're not going to get another chance at that," Sasha growled. She tapped at a button with her free hand. "Telsa fists charging!"

Charybdis, like every Kaiju before it, refused to die quietly. It screeched, tearing a chunk of metal from Cherno's headstack with its claws. Before Cherno could retaliate, it took another huge piece of rubble and backhanded Cherno with it, then slammed the debris into Cherno's torso. A lucky hit from a piece of a steel beam protruding from the rubble tore a hole in the wall of the conn-pod. Searing cold Russian air whistled in through the gap.

Cherno responded by raising one of its massive legs and kicking Charybdis as if it was a misbehaving dog. The Kaiju scrambled to its feet, still hissing and roaring. The Jaeger activated the foghorns again and slammed its fists together. It was a taunt that the Kaiju could not resist, and it charged forward.

"Telsa cells fully charged," a voice said.

Even after years of neural connection, there was still a certain visceral thrill to be gained from bellowing during combat. "Now!" Sasha shouted. Cherno spread its arms, the Telsa cells humming with charge, before bringing them together on Charybdis' head with a mighty crash. There was a roar like thunder as the Telsa fists discharged their payload, sending a ludicrous electric charge straight through the Kaiju's brain. It plummeted to the ground, unconscious for a few seconds. It was the chance the Kaidanovskies had been waiting for.

Cherno stomped over to the downed Kaiju, electricity still crackling around its head. It lay in a pool of its own blue blood, which was melting the snow around it. The Jaeger lifted one foot and planted it on Charybdis' chest. Sasha waited for the creature to begin to wake up. She waited until she could see its eyes focus on Cherno before pressing the switch that deployed the stabilising spikes. The steel slid through the Kaiju's chest, piercing at least one of its hearts. It gave a final death-rattle before its head slumped to the ground.

With the death of the Kaiju, Sasha's bloodlust subsided. She looked around, at the snow falling ever faster from the sky. Cherno gave one final foghorn blast, serving as the all-clear signal for the people of Kharbarovsk. They emerged from the shelter, looking both with horror at the destruction, and with pride at their Jaeger, their salvation.

"It's getting pretty cold in here," Aleksis said, turning his attention to the gap in the wall of the conn-pod.

"We're used to it," Sasha said with a rare smile. "Besides, we need to cool Cherno down somehow."

Its task at an end, Cherno Alpha stood still while the people cheered.


End file.
